Ingredients

A knob of butter

1 onion, finely diced

5 parsnips, peeled and diced

salt and pepper

500ml vegetable stock

1 tbsp clear honey

2 bay leaves

2 – 3 tsp turmeric

310g natural yoghurt

Cayenne pepper and ground cumin to taste

Method

1.Melt the butter in a medium sized pan, add the onion and cook gently until soft and transparent – do not allow to brown.

2. Add the parsnips with a little salt and pepper, stir together and cook gently for 4-5 minutes.

3. Add the stock, honey, bay leaves and turmeric and bring to the boil. Then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 25 minutes until the parsnips are soft.

4. Discard the bay leaves, place the cooked parsnips and yoghurt into a blender and blend until smooth.

5. Return the soup to the pan, add the cayenne pepper and cumin to taste and stir well. Adjust the seasoning if necessary and serve.

Ta-dah! The perfect soup for a cold day – enjoy with some delicious sourdough or crusty bread. Yum!

My beautiful tea towel from Love Fibre

Our lovely friend Fiona made us the most wonderful tea towel for Christmas (it’s obviously going to be making an appearance in lots of my food photos from now on!). Isn’t it amazing? The fabric is hand woven and it’s so gorgeous! You can see more of Fiona’s work on her website – everything is handmade on the Isle of Tiree (click here to see photos we took when we went to stay a few years back!). Thank you, Fiona!

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A couple of weeks ago, me and my friend Daria had a little catch up in town – we were meant to be doing LGMC errands but ended up spending most of our time having lunch…and then cake! We both had some really yummy roasted tomato and mascarpone soup for lunch, and I decided to have a look and see if I could recreate it at home because it was THAT good.

I found this recipe on the BBC Good Food website and it’s pretty close to what we had for lunch – yay! I’ll definitely be making this again.

Ingredients

1kg very ripe tomatoes
pinch golden caster sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
sprig of thyme and 2 fresh bay leaves, tied together
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp sundried or normal tomato purée
600ml vegetable stock
2 tbsp mascarpone cheese (or use double cream as alternative)

Method

1. Heat oven to 170C/150C fan/gas 3 – 4. Bring a pan of water to the boil and get a bowl of iced water at the ready. Cut a small slit in the bottom of each tomato then plunge into boiling water in batches for 10 secs then lift out into the iced water.

2. Drain and peel the tomatoes then halve and place on a baking tray cut side up. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and the sugar. Drizzle with the vinegar and 1 tbsp of the olive oil. Roast the tomatoes for 1hr until semi-dried and set aside.

3. Heat the remaining oil in a large saucepan and cook the onion and carrot gently for about 10 mins until very soft. Add the tied herbs and garlic and cook for a minute more.

4.Stir in the tomato purée then tip in the roasted tomatoes and any juices from the tray. Pour over the stock and season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil then turn the heat down and simmer for 10 mins.

5.Remove the tied herbs and discard. Add the mascarpone then take off the heat, blitz well with a hand blender. If you want a smoother soup then it can be sieved but this isn’t really necessary.

6. The soup can now be cooled and kept for 3 days in the fridge or frozen for up to 1 month. For a dinner party, serve the soup with a sprig of thyme and a drizzle of good quality olive oil. Enjoy with some delicious bread – you can find my tried and tested bread recipe here.

Post updated 17th February 2020.

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Yesterday I posted the recipe for sun dried tomato and parmesan bread, and it was really popular! So I thought that I’d post the soup that we made to go with it in case you’re going to try it out this weekend If you’re a veggie, you might want to try my super soup instead!

This recipe is originally from BBC Good Food.

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
200g cooking chorizo, peeled and diced
1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
pinch of cumin seeds
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp smoked paprika, plus extra for sprinkling
pinch of golden caster sugar
small splash red wine vinegar
250g red lentils
2 x 400g cans chopped tomato
850ml chicken stock
plain yogurt, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the chorizo and cook until crisp and it has released its oils. Remove with a slotted spoon into a bowl, leaving the fat in the pan.

2. Fry the onion, carrots and cumin seeds for 10 mins until soft and glistening, then add the garlic and fry for 1 min more. Scatter over the paprika and sugar, cook for 1 min, then splash in the vinegar. Simmer for a moment, then stir in the lentils, and pour over the tomatoes and chicken stock.

3. Give it a good stir, then simmer for 30 mins or until the lentils are tender. Blitz with a hand blender until smooth-ish but still chunky. Can be made several days ahead or frozen for 6 months at this point. Serve in bowls, drizzled with yogurt and olive oil, scattered with the chorizo and a sprinkling of paprika.

Enjoy!

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There are occasions when I open the fridge and realise that I should have gone shopping…today was one of those days! But the weather has been pretty rubbish and I didn’t fancy going out, so I decided to cobble something together with what we had. What we had turned out to be a couple of leeks, some potatoes, some mushrooms and a bit of bacon, which could only mean one thing: SOUP! You could make this without the bacon for the traditional potato and leek soup and it would be great – either way, it tastes even better with a bit of homemade bread.

Ingredients

2 leeks, chopped
5 rashers of streaky bacon, cut into medium-sized pieces (optional)
8 small/medium-sized potatoes, chopped (I left the skins on, but peel if you prefer)
700ml boiling water
1 vegetable stock cube (I used a heaped tablespoon of Bouillon)
A teaspoon of mixed herbs
Black pepper
A small handful of mushrooms, chopped

Method

1. Heat a small amount of olive oil in a large pan and add the leeks (and bacon if your wish). Leave to cook for a few minutes before adding the potatoes.

2. Add the stock cube to the boiling water and stir well before pouring into the pan. Add the mixed herbs and pepper and stir well, before leaving to simmer for a few minutes (I didn’t add salt because the Bouillon is quite salty, but you could add some if you wish).

3. Add the mushrooms and stir again, cover the pan and leave to simmer for around 15 minutes (or until the potatoes are soft).

4. Blend a little before serving if you prefer, or leave chunky. Serve with some freshly made bread and enjoy!

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This super simple and delicious soup is really healthy and takes no time at all to prepare (about 30 minutes!), which means that it can easily be made on a week night. If you have more time, then you could make your own bread to go with it! This recipe comes from the BBC website.

Ingredients

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, sliced
450g/1lb carrots, sliced
1 tsp ground coriander
1.2 litresl/2 pints vegetable stock
large bunch fresh coriander, roughly chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large pan and add the onions and the carrots. Cook for 3-4 minutes until starting to soften.

2. Stir in the ground coriander and season well. Cook for 1 minute.

3. Add the vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Simmer until the vegetables are tender.

4. Whizz with a hand blender or in a blender until smooth. Reheat in a clean pan, stir in the fresh coriander and serve.

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Our lovely friend Sandra gave us a homegrown squash from her allotment last week (there’s nothing like homegrown veg!), and I’ve been looking for something tasty to make with it. I’ve recently discovered the recipe finder on the Waitrose website and decided to see what it suggested – this soup recipe is apparently one of the most popular recipes on the site at the moment! If you want to view the original recipe, and find more new ones, click here. This is a really fruity soup and the chilli give it a nice kick – perfect for Autumn. And you can make it on a week night, as this takes less than half an hour from preparation to table!

Ingredients

1 tbsp oil
1 brown onion, chopped
¼ tsp chilli flakes
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 butternut squash, deseeded and diced
2 Braeburn apples, cored and diced
1 litre vegetable stock

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the onion for 3–4 minutes. Add the chilli, cinnamon, squash and apples and cook for 1-2 minutes.

2. Add the stock, cover and bring to the boil, then simmer for 15 minutes until tender.

3.Purée using a hand held blender and season to taste. Enjoy with some fresh crusty bread.

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